Steemit: A Platform About Content, SP Delegation or Daily Diaries? | Part 1
Let me start by saying hello to the community and anyone who might read this. My intentions in this post are to openly discuss whether Steemit is a platform about content or if it's just an SP delegation show gone bad. As somewhat of a social media/content expert with over 20 years of experience, I thought I'd share my thoughts.
After joining this site a few weeks back, I noticed something almost immediately. The interaction that @httr4life told me about years ago (we are best friends, and he just returned here after six years) that once powered this blockchain has now dwindled considerably to the bare-bones minimum. I'd actually like to see the site stats on how many active accounts post daily and then, out of those active profiles, how many are actually posting and interacting in the comment section. I know you have your exceptions, but after looking around for a few weeks, it's clear to see the site has shifted from one-on-one interaction to community involvement, and I don't necessarily think that's 100% a bad thing, but the process has made the content here a bit stale.
By stale, I mean it's heading down a path that's already been traveled over and over with posts like "My Diary," which show one person's daily routine, activities, etc. I do understand the role those posts play in helping certain individuals grow their profiles, but it's not something that an outside person who is not already a part of Steemit is going to want to invest in (which is what Steemit ultimately is: an investment for the user). This means the content should be ever-evolving in a direction that will take the site/blockchain in the direction we all want, which is up. We all want this platform to grow in numbers, so this is truly a dilemma that should be addressed if possible.
Recently, @o1eh put out an article discussing Steemit Content Analysis. It's a hugely informative post, but towards the bottom of it was this excerpt:
As the mentioned studies have shown, if we apply a more analytical approach to this issue, we see that, in general, the possibility of receiving rewards induces authors to produce higher-quality content. Indeed, when an author posts something on Reddit or Facebook, their goal is to provoke interaction, not to convey a certain point. That is why "normal" social networks are dominated by memes and various mockery. In contrast, on Steemit, people avoid content that may cause negative emotions for fear of losing their earnings.
Here was my response, which he never replied to:
Very interesting data. And I agree with the quoted line here from your post. Thing is, yes, the possibility of receiving the reward DOES induce the author to produce better content, but if the category that the overall group is getting awarded from is low-level content to begin with, they'll just produce more of it. The idea should be to expand the content as you progress as a platform.
Now, before I go any further, I want to stop and make sure we are walking down the same path here...I enjoy seeing the community embrace each other and what we do each and every day in our lives. I believe that, ultimately, that's why topics like the "Diary" posts started here--to give those from other sections of the world not only a topic that was fairly easy to get into and interesting but also to build their accounts, make money off of them, and in the process meet new individuals from all over the world. My issue is that somewhere in the process, it gave individuals the opportunity to get highly rewarded for what is still low-content, repetitive journalism. This leads me to the question: is this platform truly about the content? I know a portion of the chain would like it to be that way, but in the last few weeks, what I've noticed is the bigger accounts are not here to socialize; they're here to seize the opportunity of SP Delegation, which is the real business on this site.
The question has to be asked: Is the current Steemit brand on the brink of growing into a bigger community, or has it already shifted into a harvesting net for whales with tons of SP for rent? This is important for me to know because I have been contemplating investing further in this chain (monetarily), but I'm not impressed with the idea of stale content ruling my timeline while I see great content falling by the wayside. Each day, I see the same posts with $80+ totals in upvotes. Oftentimes, those posts are about complete nonsense, while the good posts that would power a normal website with knowledge get a couple of bucks here and there.
It was maddening at first for me to understand until I figured out the power concept of delegating your power to a larger account for them to then upvote your content. This kills the process of actual journalism because those who want to write real articles here watch as they get .10 a post unless they are part of a network/community of individuals who upvote each other. This means a new user is in a completely empty room, and the only way out is to buy LOTS of Steem to delegate and/or hold out hope that @steemcurator01 or @steemcurator02 takes care of you. I've been here 3-4 weeks and have yet to see any of the other steem curators' accounts...it seems they stay in communities I'm not a part of, which is why I applied to be a curator...don't get me wrong, I honestly don't expect to get picked to be one, but it is what it is. I think some individuals are not being taken care of on this site, and I'm not even talking about myself.
This process has no future in terms of getting new people to join the blockchain. What would someone who is willing to invest, let's say, $500 on this site actually get out of it in terms of usage? The answer is not much unless they are ready, willing, and able to grind that profile each and every day and save every piece of Steem they get. Maybe in a few years, their account could grow to see some numbers, but who has that kind of patience in today's world to wait that long in this 'take care of my needs instantly' society we live in?
The next wave of users on this site should be catering to our aspiring journalists in a world where we now question everything the nightly news tells us. Social media and phones with video cameras have shifted that profession, and those individuals need platforms to get their information out. Sites like Steemit could become a hub for that type of journalist...the individual who maybe does their own reporting but doesn't want to pay WordPress an arm and a leg to keep a blog going. They can invest/grow on this site as they move forward. The process also kills the idea of clickbait because they won't have to over-sensationalize the stories/titles because the overall monetization is completely controlled by them and the blockchain, which is a win-win situation. Other social media sites have recognized this group and started monetization programs, the problem is, of course, their programs are designed for you to get millions of views before you actually earn much of anything; I speak from experience. Also, most of those programs are designed to pay the user less and less over time in hopes the user continues to post/upload content.
To be fair, I do see some action in communities trying to offset some of the problems I've spoken about here, but understand a newcomer to this site won't understand that process immediately and likely won't stick around as long as I have to see what can be. To an outsider, it looks like 'the inmates are running the asylum,' meaning there is no visible leadership direction—no answers coming directly from Steem at all, which also is not good.
Another thing I've noticed is that the American presence is very, very low. This is extremely odd on a social media site, considering Americans are completely smitten with social media and can't get enough of it. This leads me to believe either they don't know about the site, they've powered down and never returned, or they check in from time to time and don't know how to be a part of the community any longer. Either way, that's not a good thing for the Steem blockchain either as Americans are one of the top consumers of goods in the entire world. And Steem, having a price tag, is ultimately a consumer product. Albeit, it is not promoted/handled very well as it's literally impossible to just buy Steem as an American...you must 'jump through a series of hoops' just to get some Steem in your wallet...which means more fees and more headaches that keep new users away. It's a catch-22 situation all the way around.
But at the end of the day, this site does do good things, as I saw yesterday when the WOX-HELPFUND donated 500 STEEM to help someone pay for their chemotherapy. That's real-world help made possible by this chain, which I respect, and so would other prospective users. The thing is, there's a real chance that article/post gets lost in the mix of the other 100s of low-level content items that clog up the "All" category on the home page timeline. On my first day here, I literally saw a post that was nothing but the word "bitcoin," and the post had over $200 in rewards on it. While I won't post the user account name or stats, I'll let you know they had delegated all of their power, and the rewards were all basically coming from one big user. I may be wrong, but that more than likely was not the goal of this site when things started here, but it's what it has evolved into...and it's what will keep serious investors and inspiring journalists away from it unless they want to learn/understand farming SP.
I, for one, am hoping the site can eventually shift to a place where content is king, and in that place, I think we all would enjoy it and get more out of it.
That's all I have for today, but not all I have for this discussion. #ToBeContinued
I'm sorry I didn't answer you in time. I usually leave comments that require time to respond to later. But then force majeure events occurred, after which there were many power outages.
In your post, which is definitely a follow-up to your comment under my post, you made a lot of important points. I guess each of us went through this stage and wrote our thoughts about the content on Steemit.
Posts in the format of a diary at one time literally saved the platform. I consider their introduction a brilliant decision. Thanks to these posts, the platform has become more popular. You no longer needed to be some prominent author or journalist to be active on Steemit every day. This brought in many new authors at a time when the platform was empty due to the split.
Like any solution, it had its drawbacks. The mass has led to a decrease in the quality of the content. But Steemit is great because no one forbids you to write quality content here. Everyone can write what they want, what they feel the need for.
Another problem you pointed out is the adequate evaluation of the content. It is often the case that a short blog post gets more support than a long in-depth article. This is partly due to subjective factors. People here get to know each other and even become friends, although they have never seen each other. People subscribe to the authors they read most often. It is their posts that they vote for, while a thorough article by an unknown author may go unnoticed.
I have been a member of curatorial teams for many months. Like you, I intended to vote for the highest quality content. However, it turned out that it is not so easy to find. For example, I have a specific day when I curate. I'm looking for posts, but many good posts have already been voted on by other teams. When I use tags to search, I find an incredible amount of garbage. And when I finally find a big in-depth article, it turns out it's also published on Hive and Blurt. I hope you will be chosen as a curator and you will be able to see for yourself that everything is not so simple.
One of the big problems is delegation services. By using them, people get guaranteed rewards, which does not incentivize them to write quality posts. When I first signed up to Steemit, I noticed that posts with one photo and the same text consistently get the highest rewards. So I started posting with one photo, but I was only getting 0 rewards. I remember it surprised me a lot then.
I am very happy to have another American join the platform. I would like to see more users from economically developed countries here.I even tried ordering Steem ads on Instagram and Google Ads for North America. However, I think it was not effective.
Should you invest in Steem? It is definitely only your decision. Personally, I see a lot of potential here. I can also conclude that a lot of positive developments have taken place here recently and we will soon see the fruits of this. I once wanted to invest myself, but the war that broke out in my country ruined those plans. What I like most about Steem is that, after investing in it, you don't have to wait for a big price increase. Over time, you have an ever-increasing amount of STEEM based on your activity. The most striking example is my personal one. I invested 0 and three years later my account is worth more than $10,000. With investments, everything would be even better.
Summarizing all the above, I would like to say that the quality of content on this platform will definitely increase. In the competition for rewards, people will try to write more and more qualitatively. I haven't seen a single curator who doesn't want to vote for quality content. The only problem is that the curators find this content. So, it's not enough to just write quality content. It is necessary that as many people as possible learn about it.
Steemit has enough problems, but we, each of us, can do something small in the right direction. 🙂
I apologize for how that may have come across. It was never my intention to insinuate that you were ignoring my post. I was simply meaning I didn't get a response.
I believe this may be a major issue that was, of course, made worse by the chain's issues after the split. Subjective viewpoints, while not the most popular among everyone, can help improve the overall situation. A fresh set of eyes can often see things that the experienced user misses.
That's quite the accomplishment to be proud of. I hope my experience is somewhere near yours in three years.
Good to formally chat with you; stay safe, my friend.
Welcome and thank you very much for these very pertinent observations. It is very fascinating that you, as a newcomer, are picking up on these topics, which have already filled very extensive discussions, and basically confirming the problems.
Six years ago, I myself was not as active as I am today. I feel I can confirm this from the stories and reports of early users. I sent o1eh yesterday data based on his post, which you also linked to, which I suspect at first glance supports your thesis. I hope he finds the necessary time to work through this and present the results to us.
I would also like to say personally that I myself have also invested. Not only time as a developer and witness, but also money. But - as you can see in my profile - not to delegate this to voting services. What is overlooked by many is that you can also get an increase in value with curation and comments. You can see this at a glance on steemworld.org.
But I don't want to paint a pretty picture. I think you know that there are even more aspects that influence an investment decision.
BTW: Congrats to your choose as curator :-)
Looking forward to his post on that
I think the curation part of it will be a factor once I get my power level up. At the moment, I'm getting about .005 at a time.
Thank you for the introduction, and congratulations on being named a curator. I look forward to chatting more with you in the future!
Hola @philhughes
Last night I read your post, but today, after sleeping and resting my mind, I decided to respond.
You have touched on very important points here. Investors are necessary, without a doubt, but those who focus on buying votes to obtain benefits, but at the same time create low quality content, can make it seem that this platform is only about that, and I understand the point of being an investor, it is have a benefit.
Now, there is a story with this from The diary Game, more than 3 years ago, when there was a change of management at Steemit INC, which were very difficult times on the platform, where another similar one was created, many of the users abandoned Steemit and they left, under great pressure, for the other platform, leaving Steemit with few developers as well as few users.
A strategy implemented at the time to attract more users was the creation of that dynamic "The diary game", many (a large majority) of the users who are here on Steemit today, made their debut here with the diaries , and it is logical, it is something extremely easy to do and also very basic. It served to increase the user mass but undoubtedly lowered the quality of the publications.
I, who have been here for 6 and a half years, have been able to see high-quality posts previously, which touched on topics of great depth and were highly valued, for their work and contribution, but by including the Diaries, after the migration of a large mass of users to the other platform, what we see today was created, where newspapers have served to bring many to the platform due to the simplicity of creating them.
In particular, I think that a platform where content is a priority, the quality of the content must be raised, so that it makes sense for a user, perhaps as you say, with a journalistic, or scientific, or culinary sense, etc., to want to dedicate time to Steemit, otherwise, we will always continue seeing the same thing over and over again.
But I must highlight that changes are taking place in another direction, I believe and I hope that this trend continues, where more content of another style is supported, which contributes beyond daily experiences.
Greetings.
Hola @josevas217,
Gracias por tomarte el tiempo de tu dia para darme un poco de historia sobre "The Diary Game" y lo que ha significado para la plataforma. Parece que fue de gran ayuda en un momento en que la gente no estaba segura de hacia donde se dirigía Steemit. No me malinterpretes, creo que publicaciones como "The Diary Game" aun pueden desempenar un papel importante en la situacion actual del sitio, pero la introduccion de nuevos temas y la expansion de ideas, generos y otras areas de interés ayudarán a todos los involucrados, especialmente a los usuarios actuales de la plataforma.
Me encanta escuchar la historia de alguien como tu, que ha perseverado y ahora tiene una cuenta que muestra en valor cuanto has invertido en ella. Deberías estar orgulloso de eso.
Recuerda, cada uno de nosotros tiene algo que aportar a la plataforma; algunos solo necesitan un pequeño empujon para darse cuenta de que ya tienen contenido de alta calidad dentro de si mismos. Algunos de esos periodistas aspirantes ya estan aquí y simplemente no saben lo que pueden lograr en la plataforma todavía.
Me alegra haberte conocido y espero intercambiar ideas contigo en el futuro.
I believe the interaction here is more meaningful than any other social media. We might not see 200 comments under a post, but those 5-10 comments we see scream the content has been read; it was relatable, and it was valuable. Just look at the engagement on this post. (:
There's all kinds of crap on Instagram and Tiktok that gets millions of views and money. In comparison to that, I believe Steem is doing much better as also shown by @o1eh (talking about the comparison with Reddit).
On conventional social media, the audience decides the trends. People post what gets more eyes. On Steemit, curators decide the trends. People post what gets more votes.
In my eyes, the answer is simple. If you want to see better content on Steem, creating good content is equally important to curating good content. I do that on a personal level. I'm not the best writer, but I try to do better than crap and I definitely don't read or curate or interact with subpar content. But since the quality of content is a highly subjective matter, nothing much can be done about it unless big accounts know what good writing is and support it.
Having said that, I also agree with some content being stale here. I'm very choosy about who I follow because I like to see quality on my feed. So, I usually forget about the lingering staleness that exists beyond my feed.
The Diary Game was a clever project that put some life back into the platform after the split. It has definitely gone stale and it's certainly not attractive at all for the outsiders.
But I do love to read a diary that is reflective and thoughtful. Some people know how to turn a simple diary into an interactive content. Also, I love Steem for its originality. I like to read personal experiences of real people, not some random crap of 5 ways to excel at XYZ or 10 places to visit in ABC when you haven't personally visited or have no real knowledge or experience. The online world is full of that content.
I was thinking aloud. Sorry for these unorganized thoughts. It's late here but I have been itching to share my feedback. I might come back again and share my thoughts on the rest of the post.
I've been on the platform for 7 years now. I witnessed the war of flags, I remember the huge whales, whose attention each of us craved...
I remember when the platform changed hands, lol.
For a long time, high quality content was discussed on the platform. But no one has ever answered what it is.
Good morning! Unfortunately, as usual, I'm in a hurry lately: just so much in a hurry...
Good man! It needs exactly this kind of impetus. Many. A lot. Then something will move, I believe. The people who agree with you have already voted for you ;-))
Thank you, friend!
I'm @steem.history, who is steem witness.
Thank you for witnessvoting for me.
please click it!
(Go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type fbslo at the bottom of the page)
The weight is reduced because of the lack of Voting Power. If you vote for me as a witness, you can get my little vote.